Malankara Research
Research and reflections on the ancient Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church of Malankara, Kerala
Patr. Peter III Bibliography & Documents
1. On how and when the Chaldean Church was formed
Michael Geddes 1694: The History of the Church of Malabar
3. ശ്രീ എംപി വർക്കി
1901 ൽ എഴുതിയ ജോസഫ് മോർ ദിവന്യാസിയോസിൻ്റെ ജീവചരിത്ര.
- നമ്മുടെ മഹാൻമാർ – മലങ്കരയിടവകയുടെ മാർ ദീവന്ന്യാസോസ് മെത്രാപ്പോലീത്ത by M P വർക്കി, മലയാള മനോരമ) https://archive.org/details/nammudemahanmar/-013-036.jpg
- E.M. Philip :Indian Church od St. Thomas https://archive.org/details/indianchurchofst0000emph
- William Taylor Narratives of Identity 2013:88-92.
- Oswald H. Parry: Six Months in a Syrian Monastery 1868:
https://archive.org/details/sixmonthsinasyr00parrgoog/page/n8/mode/2up?q=Peter+III
Below, from Parry:
4. Patr. Abdal Masih II’s letter about consecrating Mathews Athanasius
Travancore Royal Court Judgement 1889 by Travancore Royal Court. 1889p. 66-67.
5. Patriarch Yacoub II
a) excommunicates Mathews Athanasius in 1847; p. 97;
b) sends Mor Coorilos in 1847;
c) later, sends Mar Stephanos 1849 , but the Brit. Resident Cullen forces Mar Stephanos to return to Syria. Instead Mar Stephanos goes to London and meets with the East India Company’s Board of Directors and protests about the Company’s unlawful incursions into internal matters of the Syrian Church, and they issue an order to the Comany officials in Kerala to desist from such actions.
6. The Patr Peter III
Visits Queen Victorian in London and returns with Royal Letters to the British officials in India asking them to do the needful for the Patriarch when he visits Malankara. p.104, 105.
7. Susan Visvanathan:
The Christians of Kerala : History, Belief and Ritual among the Yakoba. Oxford Univ Press 1993:27.
8. K.K. Kuruvilla
Patriarch’s letter after being deceived by Mathews Athanasius
Patriarch’s letter, as found in Case No. III of 1061 Vol. III, in the Royal Court of Final Appeal 1888, as quoted by K.K. Kuruvilla A history of the Mar Thoma Church and its doctrines 1951:19:
മലയാളത്തിലേക്ക് ആരെയാണ് അയക്കേണ്ടത് എന്ന ചിന്തയിൽ ഞങ്ങൾ വിഷമിച്ചിരിക്കുമ്പോൾ, ഞങ്ങളുടെ പ്രിയപ്പെട്ട മകൻ മത്തായി സമാധാനത്തോടെ ഞങ്ങളുടെ അടുക്കൽ വന്നു. അവനെ കണ്ടപ്പോൾ ഞങ്ങൾ അവനിൽ വളരെ സന്തുഷ്ടരായി, അവരുടെ ഇടയിൽ നിന്ന് ഒരുവൻ വന്നതിനാൽ, അവൻ അവരുടെ ഇടയിൽ പിതാവും ഭരണാധികാരിയും ആയിരിക്കുന്നതാണ് ഏറ്റവും നല്ലത് എന്ന് പറഞ്ഞു. അതിനാൽ ആദ്യം ഞങ്ങൾ അദ്ദേഹത്തെ ഡീക്കനായും പിന്നീട് റമ്പാനായും പിന്നീട് മെത്രാപ്പോലീത്തയായും വാഴിച്ചയച്ചു.
‘ While we were labouring with these thoughts as to who should be sent to Malayalam, us our dear son Mathai came to us from you in peace. On seeing him we were much pleased with him and said that as one had come from among them, it is best above all that he should be father and ruler among them. So first we ordained him as deacon, thereafter as Ramban, and afterwards as metropolitan.’
9.John Fenwick : Forgotten Bishops Gorgias Press 2009:554.
10. Eugene Stock: on Mathews Athanasius
The history of the Church Missionary Society .Vol. 1, 1899:179
https://archive.org/details/historychurchmi00goog/page/178/mode/2up?q=Jacobite
Stock 1899:179
he had fulfilled his office faithfully, seeking by the grace of God to revive the slumbering church of his people, and always grateful for the friendly counsel of the Anglican missionaries ; and under his benign rule the Syrian Christians had increased in prosperity, trebled the number of their churches, and greatly improved in moral character. But many of the priests resented his efforts for reform, and complained to the Patriarch of Antioch, who sent two or three other bishops, not natives of India, and therefore regarded as foreign intruders, to supplant him. The better disposed of the clergy, however, stood by him, and he consecrated his cousin, Mar Thomas Athanasius, to be his coadjutor — as had been the custom in the Church in former times. The inevitable result was the division of the Church into two antagonistic parties ; and the spirit of the reactionary bishops was shown by one of them throwing down a Malayalam Bible which he found in one of the churches and trampling on it.(overegging it !! SK. 12.2.2025. ) In 1874 the Jacobite Patriarch visited England with a view to getting the British Government to interfere in the quarrel and turn Mar Athanasius out of the churches and other properties held by the reforming party. He was received by many advanced English Churchmen, who knew nothing of the case, with effusive reverence; but Mr. Whitehouse, who had long been chaplain at Cochin, and knew more of the circumstances than any other living man, exposed his pretensions in the pages of the CM, Intelligencer, showing that the Malabar Church had originally no connexion with the Jacobites of Antioch, and that although Antioch had done it a good turn by restoring to it the episcopal succession in the seventeenth century, it had always had Native bishops and was in fact an independent Church. Eventually the Patriarch was advised by Archbishop Tait to leave it to manage its own affairs ; but meanwhile he had appointed a new Native Metran, around whom the reactionary party had rallied, and the division and dissension continued — and has continued to the present time.*
11. Eugene Stock on Patriarch of Antioch Ignatius Peter III
Stock’s evil account of events; his perverted interpretations and assignations:
“Patriarch of Antioch Ignatius Peter III himself came down in 1875 and convened the synod of Mulamthuruthy in 1876. During this synod the church accepted the spiritual supremacy of the Patriarch of Antioch.
The Patriarch who stayed in Malankara for almost a year attempted to establish his authority here by hook or by crook. But he could not succeed in it; and he believed that Mar Dionysius was standing in his way in achieving this aim. Hence the Patriarch devised schemes to curtail the authority and influence of Mar Dionysius. He divided the Church into seven dioceses and consecrated six Metropolitans over the six sections leaving only one to Dionysius. Before consecrating them the patriarch obtained registered agreements from them declaring the acceptance of the authority of the Patriarch.”
12. Mavelikara Padiyola
MAVELIKARA PADIYOLA
In the name of Father, Son and Holy Ghost the one true God, Padiyola (agreement) drawn up in the year of our Lord 1836 corresponding 5th Makarom 1011 at the church dedicated to the Virgin Mother of Lord at Mavelikara, between Mar Dionyosious Metropolitan of the Jacobite Syrian Church of Malankarai subject to the supremacy of Mar Ignatius Patriarch, the Father of Fathers, and the Chief of Chiefs ruling the throne of St. Peter of Antioch, the mother of all Churches and his successor Mar Kurilos, and the vicars, priests and parishioners of Ankamali and other churches under the charge of the said Metropolitan.
That whereas an interview held at Kottayam between the Rt.Rev. Daniel, Lord Bishop of Calcutta and the Metropolitan, in Vrischikam last, it was proposed by the former that certain changes should be introduced in the Liturgies and ordinances of our Syrian Church and whereas it was stated in reply that a conference of all the churches would be held on the subject and its determination made known, we the Jacobite Syrians being subject to the supremacy of the Patriarch of Antioch and observing as we do the Liturgies and ordinance instituted by the prelates sent under his command, cannot deviate from such Liturgies and ordinances and maintain a discipline contrary thereto, and a man of one persuasion being not authorized to preach and admonish in the church of another following a different persuasionwithout the permission of the respective Patriarachs, we cannot permit the same to be done against us, and our churches being built by the aid of the pre-lates sent under the order of the Patriarch and on the wishes of the people of each parish and ornamented by their money, and as the accounts of the annual income according to our churches under the head of voluntary contributions offerings etc, are as required by the rules furnished to our bishops, as is the custom in the churches of Antioch as well as in the churches of this and other countries following different persuasions we are without the power, and feel disinclined, to follow and cause to be followed a different procedure from the above. That the Honourable Colonel Macaulay having taken a loan of 3000 star pagodas from (Valia) great Mar Dionysius who died in 983, gave him a bond for the same. The interest on the amount having fallen in arrears, Mar Dionysius Metropolitan who died in 992 made a representation to Col. Munro and received the interest with which he (Dionysius) built the Seminary at Kottayam. Having also collected at the Seminary the money brought by the prelates that had come here from Antioch and the property left by the late Bishops of the Pakalomattom family, Mar Dionysius laid out a portion of this together with the donation made by HIS HIGHNESS THE MAHARAJA on behalf of the Syrian Christian Youths, on Kanom and therewith met the expense of their education. The Reverend the missionaries who have come down to Kottayam, in their profuse benevolence taught the youth at the Seminary, English and other languages, protected our children like loving fathers, caused books to be printed for the benefit of all classes, rendered all necessary help in maintaining the prevailing discipline of the Syrian Church caused the annual interest due, to be drawn on the receipt of the Metropolitan, had superintendence over the affairs of the Seminary and caused ordination to be made agreeable to the request of the people and the power of the prelates. While affairs were being thus conducted the Missionaries took to managing the Seminary without consulting the Metropolitan, themselves expended the interest money drawn annually on the receipt of the Metropolitan, dispersed the deacons instructed in the Seminary, conduct deacons instructed in the Seminary, conducted affairs in opposition to the discipline of the church and created dissensions amongst us, all of which have occasioned much sorrow and vexation. For this reason we do (would) not follow any faith or teaching other than the Orthodox faith of the Jacobite Syrian Christians, to the end, that we may obtain salvation through the prayers of ever happy, holy, and ever-blessed Mother of God, the redresser of all complaints and through the prayers of all Saints. Witness, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen
Malankara Research 
